Heather in OK re: nitrate free lunch meat

[momee]

What is this and why is it so important? Caught my eye in the meal planning thread...I should probably know - causes cancer or early menstruation or something, but I'm drawing a blank.

Thanks for your reply too, writing notes now.

 

Also, have you found it more economical to be making a meal plan then a shopping list instead of a sale flyer then making a meal plan...see, it's all so many decisions :)

 

Also, had to comment on this...

I typically shop at Aldi, Target, and WalMart. They are all within a mile of each other

 

we have a Food Lion, a little country high priced market and then Super Wal Mart about twenty minutes. Sams, Target, etc, they're all "in town" and about 30/40 mins or so. Bummer!

 

Do you have some sort of schedule where you're making things from scratch since nothings prebought, like muffins let's say. Do you make those once a week, on say, a baking day or just when it's on the meal plan. I'm toying with the idea of making things in bulk, like rice, muffins, bread on one day, then I have it throughout the week. Well, I'm not MAKING rice, I'm preparing rice, but ykwim.

 

I ask because you said "If I need to get up earlier to do more breakfast prep, I do." I'd be getting up early every am :)

 

And before I go...excellent job on $300 every two weeks! You've got us beat by about 300 or so~~~

Edited May 20, 2010 by momee

[Liz CA]

Nitrites and Nitrates are a from of preservatives and not a natural component of food even though a minimal amount does occur naturally when fermenting - I think.

 

I do plan meals on a broad level, that means general ideas. When I am making something unusual, I have to get the ingredients specifically but I usually have staples on hand and lots of fruit and veggies.

[amy g.]

I just read this:

 

 

 

Nitrate/nitrite poisoning. Like beets, eggplant, lettuce, radish, spinach, and collard and turnip greens, celery contains nitrates that convert naturally into nitrites in your stomach and then react with the amino acids in proteins to form nitrosamines. Although some nitrosamines are known or suspected carcinogens, this natural chemical conversion presents no known problems for a healthy adult. However, when these nitrate-rich vegetables are cooked and left to stand at room temperature, bacterial enzyme action (and perhaps some enzymes in the plants) convert the nitrates to nitrites at a much faster rate than normal. These higher-nitrite foods may be hazardous for infants; several cases of "spinach poisoning" have been reported among children who ate cooked spinach that had been left standing at room temperature.

[Denisemomof4]

Amy - VERY interesting read!!! Thanks for posting it!

 

I try to only buy nitrate and nitrite free meats because those preservatives are known to cause cancer.

[momee]

Yikes. I've probably been killing us without even knowing it :001_huh: I bet anything from my deli counter at Food Lion is probably bad for us.

 

I'm saying "probably" because I can afford it. That means it's gotta go off the list...tongue in cheek but when I asked, I had a feeling.

 

I've seen the deli meat prices at Whole Foods. I cannot afford that when 1/2 lb feeds my crew for sandwiches at lunch, and there it's 7/99 lb when at Food Lion it's 4.99 lb.

 

Do you all know of a brand that is ni..whichever, free :bigear: Maybe Food Lion has something after all??

[amy g.]

When I was researching this topic, I learned that most nitrate free sausage/bacon/hot dogs are cured with concentrated celery juice and sea salt which are both high in nitrates but can be labeled as "natural seasonings".

[littlebug42]

It does say on the label that there are naturally occuring nitrates etc in the nitrate free bacon etc but in my mind, I would rather have naturally occurring anything that a chemical preservative on my food.

 

Hormel and Oscar Meyer are now offering nitrate free lunch meat, hot dogs etc and the prices are more affordable than some of the others. At our local Kroger, the price of the hot dogs is not much different and my Oscar Meyer hot dog loving dd cannot tell the difference.

[CalicoKat]

according to dd's pedicatrician it helps raise LDL's --the bad cholesterol. Her LDL's are elevated and he told me a list of foods to keep out of her diet which includes processed meats.

Edited May 20, 2010 by CalicoKat

[SeekingSimplicity]

my dd has allergies, which is her immune system over reacting. Nitrates and nitrites are hard on the immune system, so we avoid them where we can for that reason. We get Hormel lunch meats, and Oscar Meyer Black Angus hot dogs. The hot dogs are about $1 more than the Oscar Meyer hot dogs that I buy that don't have a soy filler. I don't mind the extra dollar no more than we have hot dogs (or any processed meat for that matter). The only way I've found to get bacon is to get it uncured... but it doesn't taste like bacon any more when you do that. It just taste like pork

Edited May 20, 2010 by SeekingSimplicity

[OrganicAnn]

No one mentioned that pregnant women are strongly advised not to eat meats preserved with nitrates.

[elise1mds]

I think the prices of food vary widely. I spend about $300 for our family of four to eat mostly organic, and I shop at one of the higher-priced grocery stores around here. I live in Oklahoma as well.

 

Just a random aside, though, I bought some of the nitrate-free hot dogs, and my husband loved them. He thought the flavor was MUCH better than 'regular' hot dogs. One skeptical hubby converted!

[LauraGB]

Nitrates = Very Bad. Don't do it. If you can afford $3.99 lb for sandwich meat at the deli, buy a turkey, cook it, slice it and use that for sandwich meat. Or use a pork loin or a chicken.

[Heather in OK]

Looks like your nitrate question was answered. :) Just another one of those preservatives that we avoid.

 

Do you all know of a brand that is ni..whichever, free

I buy Hormel. It's about $2.50 a package here. Just enough for lunch sandwiches for the week.

 

Also, have you found it more economical to be making a meal plan then a shopping list instead of a sale flyer then making a meal plan...see, it's all so many decisions

Sometimes I use the sale flyers. Aldi generally has good prices regardless and I don't really buy much there (too many packaged items... ;)). The other two stores don't run sales like the main grocery stores do. And when those stores do, their sale prices are the same as Target or WalMart's regular prices.

 

Every once in a while there is one store that has great sale prices. In that case I will plan a trip there since it's not close to where we live.

 

Do you have some sort of schedule where you're making things from scratch since nothings prebought, like muffins let's say. Do you make those once a week, on say, a baking day or just when it's on the meal plan. I'm toying with the idea of making things in bulk, like rice, muffins, bread on one day, then I have it throughout the week. Well, I'm not MAKING rice, I'm preparing rice, but ykwim.

Not really. I'll have muffins planned for, let's say Wednesday morning, so I make them Tuesday night (or make the batter and put it in the fridge so they are served warm in the morning). I also always make a double batch and freeze half of it. So maybe the next week or two weeks out I can plan them again for breakfast then just set them out the night before.

 

I don't set a day aside to cook anything ahead for the week if that's what you are asking. I avoid freezing foods as much as possible. I do NOT like reheated foods (which is one reason we never do leftovers). The fresher the better. Even though I will make a double batch of muffins to make an easy breakfast, they just aren't the same as fresh.

 

I ask because you said "If I need to get up earlier to do more breakfast prep, I do." I'd be getting up early every am

If I make muffins, they take maybe 30 minutes to bake. Scrambled eggs maybe 10 minutes. On toast/yogurt or cereal mornings I can sleep in b/c the kids can get it themselves. lol The baked french toast I made this week (and will never make again...YUCK!) took an hour to bake, so even though it was something prepared the night before, I had to get up earlier to preheat the oven and bake.

 

And before I go...excellent job on $300 every two weeks! You've got us beat by about 300 or so~~~

Oh gosh....believe me, if I could spend more, I would. Doing it on $150/week is hard and I don't shop like I would really want to.

[momee]

wait, Whole Foods sells stuff that has no nitrites/nitrates but uses some kind of celery juicy stuff that's just as bad, so why bother? We really should just eat a strawberry. Hold it, probably something dangerous on those too :)

 

 

Johnsonville Original Recipe Breakfast Sausage:

this is what I bought from Wal Mart - according to reading whole foods type posts here that place should have already killed us by now :) with all it's bad foods

 

anyway,

what are the nitrites/nitrates in here? I mean, which ingredient is the culprit

 

pork, water, corn syrup, flavorings, BHA (that can't be good), propyl gallate (again, not good?), citric acid (is this the nitrate?), collagen casings

 

and isn't collagen skin? just found this...

Collagen is a group of naturally occurring proteins. In nature, it is found exclusively in animals.[1][clarification needed] It is the main protein of connective tissue. It is the most abundant protein in mammals,[2] making up about 25% to 35% of the whole-body protein content.

 

Oh my goodness! That just sounds gross no matter what it really is.

 

and found this when researching BHA

That said, when examining human population statistics, the usual low intake levels of BHA shows no significant association with an increased risk of cancer.[6] Furthermore, the acceptable daily intake (ADI) of BHA and a similar preservative, butylated hydroxytoluene BHT, is exceeded by only a small fraction of the population

 

so it's healthy? only if not overdosed in humans, or not? ugh! Off to do more reasearch - I remember I posted about this a while ago in something like farm girl food not being healthy...my fil eats sausage/bacon three times a week - and he's 84...remember that post, caused a bit of stir. Should look it up again.

If I keep this up, we'll be eating grass from the field down the street and that's it. I say the field down the street because it's a wild feed, no one caring for it or dousing it with fertilizer.

Edited May 21, 2010 by momee

[Heather in OK]

pork, water, corn syrup, flavorings, BHA (that can't be good), propyl gallate (again, not good?), citric acid (is this the nitrate?), collagen casings

Flavorings probably contain MSG. BHA is a preservative (BHA, BHT, and TBHQ are commonly added to foods and/or the packaging. Most cereals have at least one of these in the packaging). Anything that's not found in nature isn't going to be great for your body. ;)

 

You will drive yourself crazy trying to "eat right". There is always something wrong with whatever you do. I just do the best I can with what I know.